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Although the Rangers finally have a first round pick, they will need some more prospects to fill out the organization. They are already linked to KHL defenseman Alexei Bereglazov, but given their history of signing NCAA free agents, we should expect that again this year.

Undrafted NCAA prospects are interesting assets. A majority of them don’t make it to the NHL, most likely because of age. The older you are in the NCAA, the higher the expectations to succeed, since you are in your prime years. Over at Canucks Army have numerous methods in predicting prospect success. One major find is that undrafted NCAA players seem to have a higher chance at making an NHL impact if they leave during their sophomore year, junior the latest.

That said, an organization is run from top to bottom so if certain NCAA guys can become solid AHL contributors, then it is just as beneficial for the Rangers.

Per Elliotte Friedman, the Rangers are considered the favorites for KHL defenseman Alexei Bereglazov. This is only one of the hopefully many prospect signings the Rangers will be making this offseason and I think Berglazov is a nice start for a project defenseman.

Only 22 years old, the 6’4 Russian defenseman is a very nice prospect to add to the pool as many of these big defensemen take a longer while to develop. The good news is that in his last three seasons in the KHL, Bereglazov has been developing and improving in all facets of his game. When discussing him, we should really talk about his playing style. He is a big, physical, defensive defenseman who uses his size and brains to his advantage in the zone. His positioning is very good as well.

The buzz around the 31st NHL team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, has only grown over the last couple of weeks. This is a culmination of them officially paying their league fees and signing their first player, Reid Duke. As the expansion draft creeps nears, there have been a lot of discussions of teams trading draft picks or perhaps prospects to Vegas as payment for them to not take an exposed player.

It is a nice business move, especially if you have assets to use and a great team that you don’t want to break up. Some people/bloggers have suggested that maybe the New York Rangers would be one of the teams that pay off Vegas, but I personally believe that it would be a wasteful move by the Rangers.

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There is a lot of talk that this coming draft lacks guys who can be the face of the franchise, and while that is true, I think the dearth of it is vastly overblown. This draft has a lot of depth on defense and guys that could be had late. I would really like for the Rangers to perhaps make the most of the perceived bad draft and stock up on some mid round picks.

A month or so ago, I talked about a few OHLers on offense that I am interested in. Jonah Gadjovich was probably the most well liked guy and he just scored his 40th, so he will likely shoot up the rankings. I have two defensemen that I’d really like to look at, as well as a Russian forward. I’ll only be approximating draft pick position but I haven’t personally made a mock draft and won’t until a month or so before the draft.

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The New York Rangers are an incredible case study, I do not believe that there has ever been a team with such stark differences regarding the talent level between the offense and the defense. The offense is so deep that we may as well call our forwards Mariana. Tje defense… eh I don’t have to say anything.

In the grand scheme of things, especially seeing the moves that GM Jeff Gorton made over the summer, I still consider this season to be a transition season, and it hasn’t been as bad on the eyes as last year so that’s always fun. The Rangers’ possession numbers aren’t something to be thrilled about though, and while the defense has been a focal point of the issues that we have faced, I think there are some things that may at least be worth trying to maximize the potential of our offense.

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The NHL trade deadline is less than a month away, and as always the big market New York Rangers are at the center of online trade rumors. It’s no secret that the Rangers are in need of upgrades on defense, but that doesn’t stop outlets for saying the Rangers are in the running for names like Jarome Iginla and Shane Doan. The Rangers are also in a very odd position this season that may throw a monkey wrench into possible plans.

The Rangers are in the best division in the league, where 5th place in the Metro would be 3rd in the Atlantic division. This provides something odd as the Rangers will likely play either the best team in the Atlantic Division (Montreal) or the second place team in the Metro, which will likely be better than Montreal. Either path provides a difficult and path in round 1 and an even tougher matchup in the second round.

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For those who may not follow me on Twitter, I have been improving on the draft trends that I made last year. For this current season I decided to include every player playing in Major Junior, not just the draft eligibles. Thanks to the wonderful work by @3Hayden2 (creator of prospect-stats.com), I have been able to make more comprehensive views. I only have the OHL completed right now, but I’ll have the other leagues up soon.

Before looking at the players, it’s important to understand how these should be read. The visual consists of numerous parts. First, we have the basic information about the player. It is very important to look at the age when we are looking at how they perform. An older player should be expected to be great in Juniors, as they play against younger and less developed kids. But a draft eligible kid (18 years old) performing strongly can make for an interesting potential sneak pick in the mid rounds.

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The New York Rangers have hit a prominent lull in the 2016-2017 season. It is pretty easy to expect fans to be getting antsy when your team has given up more touchdowns than the Cleveland Browns in one week, followed up by spotting Ottawa a two-spot early on. Members of the analytics community expected the team to slow down, and losing an entire first line tends to make the regression even more excruciating. Other bloggers in the Rangers community have mentioned that perhaps, a key thing the Rangers need to help turn this lull around is toughness.

One of the biggest proponents for adding toughness in the Rangers blogger universe is @NYR_Fulltilt and he laid out his points well in this post. I tend to disagree with a lot of what he says, but I have noticed that much of the backlash he is getting is disjointed yelling, making following and cheering for the team difficult at times. I am just going to flat out say my view, toughness is not an issue, nor is having four similar lines of skill, but I do think there is more to the discussion than what meets the eyes.

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Confession: I just wanted to save this title for when it happens in the NHL.

One of the more interesting prospects for the Rangers this season has been Sergey Zborovskiy. When he was drafted he immediately became a somewhat polarizing player due to the Rangers taking him in the third round. While he was certainly shooting up the draft rankings, the Rangers’ definitely reached for him. Low and behold, last season Zborovskiy began to slowly add some more offense to his game. That is a natural progression that comes with being more comfortable in a new country and growing older.

Not all things were peachy last year though. While his point production and skating improved, he was still having difficulty breaking out of his own zone, costing him the spot on the Russian World Junior team. The Rangers still must’ve seen some potential and rewarded Zborovskiy’s improvement with an entry level contract. From the current look of things, he is beginning to reimburse the Rangers. So let’s break down the prospect that can potentially give the Rangers a nice defenseman with size.

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Yesterday, the Rangers made a surprising little move by claiming the 24th overall pick in the 2011 Entry Draft, Matt Puempel. Without trying to make this more complex I truly see some good signs regarding this transaction, so lets get to some musings that have sprung from the waiver pick-up.

First and foremost lets get to the semantics, a couple of weeks ago the Rangers terminated Calle Andersson’s contract. In theory, Puempel just takes his slot and the Rangers still have a few spots open for trade flexibility or UDFA signings.